A group of lads have gone above and beyond to pull the ultimate con on a group of Russian punters who thought they were betting on the Indian Premier League.
The farm labourers from a Gujarat village have been caught by police mimicking the leading cricket league in India, in an attempt to make some money off of a remote audience of Russian betters.
How did they do it? Well, they certainly pulled out all the stops to make the illusion seem as real as possible.
According to the India Times, the charade played out at a farm in Moliupu Village and not a full-bodied stadium, where unemployed kids and day-to-day farmers took turns wearing kits from Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans.
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The lads streamed matches on a YouTube channel called 'IPL' equipped with a high definition camera, an overlaid scorecard, and a 'commentator' who sounded a lot like legendary announcer Harsha Bhogle.
The pitch looks desolate, there's not much greenery, but somehow they managed to swindle some remote Russian punters into betting on their backyard cricket tournament.
The cameras would never show off a wide shot of the pitch and the lads even ensured there were crowd sounds mimicked in the stream, so as far as those Russian T20 lovers were concerned the game was being broadcast in front of thousands.
They used an 'official' Telegram channel to allow Russian gamblers to place bets on the game.
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The umpire was equipped with a walkie-talkie and would be alerted when a punter had wacked on some money on what the next shot would be.
The lad would then signal to the bowler and batsman to either hit a six, four or get out and thus never lose a single dime.
Betting on cricket is illegal in India, and so there's not necessarily any way for the Russians to know whether they were betting on the legit IPL or not.
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Four people have been arrested by the Mehsana police in relation to the con, while the police report revealed that one of the lads got the idea after working in a Russian pub that was famous for gambling.
He and another accomplice introduced the Russians to the nuances of the sport and got them intrigued into betting on the game.
Once they were back in India they hired 21 farm labourers to act as the players whilst they kept track of the bets and played the officials for the game.
Someone needs to make a movie about these guys.
Featured Image Credit: JElgott/Twitter. RayArt Graphics / Alamy.Topics: Cricket
